In my travels around town, I keep an eye out for anything of interest. That includes driveways and parking lots, and side streets; one of these days I’m going to rear end someone because of it. I almost decided to pass this Nova up, because, well…this sort of thing isn’t my bag, baby. But then I noticed the license plate. Whoa! Someone might well have rear-ended me when I stopped suddenly.
I’ve never run across a car here in town with European plates on it, but this is the last car I would ever imagine having them. A beater hot-rod Nova; the kind that Billy would take to the races, and somewhere other than Eugene. And Germany, for that matter. I know there’s been a pretty active hot-rod scene in Germany since way back, augmented by endless rotations of American service men with free shipping. But something this sloppy?
OK, clue me in somebody; US military posted overseas that bring their cars don’t have to get them licensed locally, do they? I can’t exactly see this one passing the difficult TÜV inspection. Hmmm….
It’s obviously been modified to take to the races, although that was apparently a few decades ago. Well, I’m open to and and all theories, so bring them on.
Between the flat front tires and the jacked-up rear end, it’s sure sitting nice and level.
unless a GI’s home of record is in Germany, he would have to have it registered in the states once he comes home from an overseas tour and most of the bases here (Virginia) make military personnel get VA state inspections no matter what state the vehicle is registered in. The base MPs would see to it that it would need US tags as well.
But that seems like an awful rough car to be toting around all over the world though; the military normally will only ship one car OCONUS on the government dime.
Kind of interesting…a GI down the road from me has a very similar (but much nicer) street/strip orange 72 Nova.
Correct. And even if he somehow managed to get around getting it locally registered in the US for a few weeks, while he’s in Germany the car wouldn’t have a D on the country code, it would be USA, even on the European plates. I live by a military base, and the 4 times in the last 10 years I’ve seen Euro plates on a car and chased it down, they’ve all been USA country codes, except one oddly RHD Ford Explorer with yellow rear, non EU UK plates. Still don’t know what that was about.
Here’s a bunch of photo’s of the USA Allied Forces plates for examples.
http://www.olavsplates.com/allied_forces.html
That used to be true, but since 2005, GIs have to have their cars registered locally in Germany, due to security concerns. Stationed in Kaiserslautern Military Community, the car would receive Kaiserslautern (KL) plates. Our good friend Wikipedia tells the cars have to comply with all security regulations, but not the lighting regulations, and are exempt from the TÜV inspections.
Well that stinks, I bet Virginia’s inspection is stricter than New York’s; wonder if my Caravan would pass? I do not see how the Military can legally make you inspect your vehicle in a state you do not live in, but I digress.
Virginia is safety only unless you live in the metro DC area, than theres an emissions test as well.
And a base commander can pretty much do whatever he wants. Rank has its priveleges.
Must not practiced at the Navel base in Norfolk VA. My brother is stationed there and the only state making him emission test his cars is Maryland(when the cars are registered) and on that I tell him that he can get that deferred(by filling out a form) since he is stationed outside of MD and tell Maryland to go suck it.
Maryland only has a safety inspection one time during ownership and that is when a person first registers it.
“In a world where Germany has been taken over by trailer parks . . . . “
Where the mullet has replaced the tiny mustache as a symbol of oppression… (I kid, I kid)
Could it be a GI’s work in progress/unfinished project? I think Nova’s were assembled in Europe in the 60s & 70’s.
Could be that it is just a unregistered car and he’s slapped whatever plate he has lying around on it. It is odd though.
I’ll bet the plates are on there as a lark. And the car is level only because the driveway is sloped.
And because the front tires are flat. That’s what caught my eye first too. Hilarious..
I hope that wasn’t a good 2nd-gen F-car console before it was hacked up for this POS.
Douche alert! Like the douches who drive BMWs with European front plates in states where a front plate isn’t needed.
LOLOLOLOLOL……. +1
Years ago I saw a (phony) front plate of this type on a BMW in Los Angeles. It read “TI 3VOM”.
Didn’t make much sense unless you saw it in your rear-view mirror.
Even as a Nova fan I sort of agree with the guys about this one. If someone were to be transferred from Germany back to the states for separation there would be a grace period. Abandon your ride at moms house and it could wind up in this situation. Hard to say but it’s an attention getter.
The plate was issued in Kaiserslauten (KL) which is well within the former French Occupation Zone of Germany. I think David Saunders and Jim Grey are right.
He probably came across it somehow and thought it would look cool. I’ll bet he doesn’t even know what country it’s from.
Or he needed the car to have a “valid tag” in order to sit uncovered on the property and not get citations from the city zoning board…
Not here. As long as it’s off the street, anything goes.
What a quirky find indeed, nice catch. I do not know very much about Deutschland license plates so I cannot tell you anything more than that it is from within the past 13 or so years. Neat Scion by the way.
What’s that old off-on switch for, next to the plate?
Good question. Here’s the close-up.
Cutoff switch for trunk-mounted batteries. Its an NHRA safety reg for cars running 11.99 or faster
OK, but what about front footwell-mounted batteries? 😉
IIRC NHRA requires any non-factory trunk mounted battery requires the kill switch regardless of speed. They also require a sealed box for it or a rear firewall.
I personally think it’s a stupid rule.
Since the bottom seal has been removed, this points to a plate that is no longer legally in use (obviously). Also note the green hexagon plate, which is part of the emissions inspection. These were used on the front licence plates of German cars up to 2010. Since the seal colors are reused every couple of years, it is possible to deduct that the car the plate originally was from was last due for inspection probably in 2006.
This German plate has the seal for the local jurisdiction scraped off. The German licensing authorities are quite strict about this being done when a plate is no longer in regular service. This being the case, I think bjcpdx is correct, the guy just thought the plate would look cool.
Used German plates are quite easy to obtain, whether they’re older or like this one fairly recent with the blue “Euroband” on the left side and the current slightly goofy-looking number and letter dies.
Jacked up, ‘pro-street’ Novas were all over Midwest in the 70’s. Same with Dusters.
The 73-74 Novas still were popular with ‘tuners’ of the day. This was before stricter smog equipment checks.
But when new, the 75 X bodies flopped with ‘the kids’ since had catalysts. But the F bodies still sold, and by later years, aftermarket supported unleaded power.
Now, 75-79 X bodies have a following and can be seen at car shows, drag strips, etc.
I think the plate was just stuck on the car ether because the owner had it on hand or thought it was cool or as a ironic joke(American car with European plates(perhaps a Hipster?)
If I remember the gas tank filler neck hid out behind the rear plate, with the German plate on it, there is no way to open the door to access the gas tank without bending the plate
Fuel cell perhaps if it was really as fast as that kill switch makes it out to be.
http://www.summitracing.com/search/part-type/fuel-cells
Although installing one makes it silly difficult to fill the car and impossible to use the trunk.
The registration sticker is missing, for what it’s worth.
I would assume that the plate is a joke of sorts, and that the car isn’t registered. Judging from the look of it, it hasn’t been registered in quite awhile.
The owner of this car probably bought the plate on eBay after too many Pabst Blue Ribbons and put it on the car to be hipster ironic. Lots of BMW owners acquire expired German plates and mount them on their cars and put their proper reg plates on top.
Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl military hospital, the largest remaining American base in Europe, is located in the district of Kaiserslautern (or K-town, as the GIs call it, since the name is not the easiest to pronounce), which uses the KL registration code. Since a few years, cars owned by receive local registration rather than receiving their own code, with the European Union “D” band instead of the “US forces” one. It was done to make them less directly recognisable, although that’s kinda difficult if you’re bringing an all-American Nova.
All in all, probably returned by a GI as a souvenir, but now no longer valid, as evidenced by the missing registration seal, which would have been that of the district of Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz.
Here’s my guess, only because I’ve used the same ruse: the plates are there because of local bylaws regarding “derelict” cars. Locally, the city can tow any car that is visible from the street and unplated. In order to get around this, I have a couple of sets of Euro plates (’70s Swedish from my ’80 Volvo GT, ’60s British off an Austin 1100) that I slap on any car that is going to be off the road for a while. Because the plates are genuine, I usually get away with it.
There’s nothing but daylight and leaf springs under the car behind the rear wheels. It looks like the floor of the trunk and more has been removed.
Just realized how much of the sidewalk is being blocked. That is not cool, especially if one is in a wheel chair.